He expanded on a favorite theme - that McCain would be an economic clone of Bush.

Obama also critcised McCain for saying again on Friday that government should ease its regulations on business and mocked him for saying that Bush's economic policies had gotten "out of hand".

"Let's be clear: John McCain attacking George Bush for his out-of-hand economic policy is like Dick Cheney [the vice-president] attacking George Bush for his go-it-alone foreign policy," Obama told about 11,000 supporters at a rally in Reno.

He also said that Bush did not seem offended, since he voted on Friday for McCain.

"And that's no surprise, because when it comes to the policies that matter for middle-class families, there's not an inch of daylight between George Bush and John McCain."

James Bays, Al Jazeera's correspondent at Obama's rally in Reno, said: "They are campaigning on the same territory both in terms of the issues - tax and the economy - and geographically on the same territory.

"They are focusing on this small number of battleground states which are so key at this stage. In most of those battleground states Senator Obama is ahead."

Obama lead

Obama has solidified his lead over McCain in national opinion polls ahead of the November 4 election, and McCain is playing defence against a surging Obama in about 10 states won by Bush in 2004.

Nevada, with five electoral votes, is a prime target for Obama, whose campaign is counting on a surge in Democratic voter registrations to aid it in key battlegrounds like Reno's Washoe County.